My Sony PFM-42X1 plasma decided to not switch on anymore after 1 year and 4 months.

I called Sony who put me onto their "closest" service center. I called, they came out on Tuesday 30th and still until today (Saturday 11th Feb) I haven't received it back. If it wasn't for my phone calls I still wouldn't of even received a call from them.

I spoke with the repair center on Friday 3rd and the lady said I'd need to give them at least a week. I called them again on Wednesday 15th and a different lady said they need about 10 to 12 days.

No-one cares....I'm without a TV that I originally paid $6K for.

I called again on the same Wednesday afternoon and spoke with the Service Manager. He said the plasma still hadn't even been looked at and it would get done the following day. I called again Friday morning and left a message for the Service Manager to return my call. Friday afternoon, still no call and I called back. Apparently it was being looked at as we spoke. I still haven't even had one call from them.

Is this normal?

What are peoples experiences with repairs of plasma's?

Perhaps it's only me that's had a faulty plasma after such a short period of time and should I be demanding anything else?

I am so frustrated and would like to hear peoples experiences and if it's just me being impatient.

Thanks in advance.

See my previous post regarding repairs to my Epson scanner.

As we all know, the answer to the question "Plasma repair, How long should it take?" the answer is...............

Probably about one hour.

Due to incompetent planning, it does however need to "age" for a minimum of seven days, preferably fourteen days in the repairers shop before it can be worked on.

Austen.

Let me guess, when you bought it your retailer told you would last 60000 hours (20 years with average use) seems to be a popular statement in Plasma sales.

I think that relates to the screens "half-life", IE, when the screen is half as bright as original ...

Component failures on the other hand ........................

Austen.

ero

Is your plasma under warranty?
Did you take extra warranty when you purchased?

i don t think the issue lies with the repair, but the service you get or lack of from the so-called service centre.
the problem is with any electrical item i had repaired is that its takes weeks for them to look at, they then inform that it requires a part? (who would have thought that).
but the manufacter doesnt have the part in the country.(they never do)
another couple of weeks, part arrives, installed, than find out you need another part. (ground hog-day)
part arrives weeks later, only for the so-called service centre to inform you they are very busy & will fix your unit next week.
next week arrives, ring to say its fixed, but they only deliver to your area on tuesday & of course the day they ring you is wednesday.
all up your repair took i hour as stated in other post, but the whole process takes weeks to months.
if only you could get you goods repaired like to bloke in shops who changes your watch battery while you wait.
good luck with a quick repair, cause ive never had one.

another thing, just keep ringing them every day, morning & afternoon, they soon get the shits and would rather have you repaired & gone, then have you pushed to the back of the que.
even turn up if the repair centre is local.

Definately only relates to the screen half life, how many times would this get twisted in meaning during a sales pitch to an unsuspecting buyer though, there are so many half truths already that get used in the selling process.

Fortunately yes....at the time the repairer came i didn't know where my receipt was....i finally found it on Wednesday this week....good ol' me forgot he took out 4 years extra Warranty....at least that was one good thing.

I must say, so far Harvey Normal extended warranty department were VERY nice....I explained the situation about calling Sony/Repair Center before finding the receipts and speaking with Harvey Norman. She said "no problems, where's the TV now" and asked for my job #. That was nice and at least some customer service from somewhere. We'll see if the entire warranty process goes smoothly but so far have no reason to believe it won't.

Regarding the 60,000 hours....yeah, I know that's got to do with screen brightness.
I just really didn't think the power supply would go on it (if that's the actual fault) - well, not in what I believe such a short period of time.

I think I will take mdswat's advice and call them every morning and afternoon. They will get sick of me. I'm glad I've got VoIP....at least the call costs are bugger all too. I work on the road too, so yes, they will get to meet me in person.


What really aggrevates me is that it's very rare to find decent customer service these days. I go out of my way to help customers and reply promptly but it's just not the norm anymore...why should it be me chasing them instead of them following up with me.....aaarrrghhhh.....

My Viewsonic lcd panel stopped working after nearly 2 years (still under warranty). They couldnt get the part they needed so it was replaced for a new one withiin 2 weeks.

mate, join the club..

it seems no service centre cares anymore, my projector took 4wks to repair, all that was needed was a new bulb but obviously panasonic didnt have any in the country.

a 10min repair job took 4wks.

Well ero it’s good to hear that you have the extended warranty.

I recall a member purchased the Sony plasma (an earlier model to the PFM-42X1) and his set died after 20 months. Unfortunately his set was unrepairable and he had no extra warranty.
Fortunately for Mozmo things worked out well for him as Sony gave him a replacement of a brand new set the PFM-42X1. He hasn’t been active just recently in these forums, more’s the pity, but he was very happy with the 42X1 and I guess it’s still going well for him as I don’t remember hearing otherwise.

These couple of links maybe of some interest to you:

http://www.dtvforum.info/index.php?showtop...82&#entry101282

http://www.dtvforum.info/index.php?showtop...070&#entry82070

BTW ero great picture on the PMF-42X1.

the reason they dont give a stuff is you have to go there, you have no choice as it has to be fixed under warranty via them, so your not the customer therefore they dont really give a rats arse about you.
the tv companys are sending them the work thats all they care about.

had my daughter a while back think the video was a cupboard & she could pack as much juck into it as she could. took it to my normally warranty centre send it would take a couple weeks & around 200 bucks.
took it down to a local repair man who had very little warranty badges displayed had it fixed within 2 days at a price of 80 bucks.
excellent customer service from this bloke & he seemed to know what he was talking about.

I have a mate taking Sony to VCAT (Victorian court for small claims etc) this week for a very similar reason, although his has been dragging on for month after month after month.

I have been privvy to the entire saga, read the letters to Sony, etc etc - Basically Sony have been extremely arrogant and unhelpful, and as you say, they couldnt care less.

I will be very interested to see how it goes!

will let you know

Having been in the electrical/electronics maintenance and repair buisness for many years (high-end mission-critical systems of various kinds) I can say that the five most common problems I recall are, in order:
1. Board seating - i.e. a circuit board/card develops a disconnect fixed by re-seating it in its slot or re-attaching the connector;
2. Power supplies - these go all the time in all kinds of equipment;
3. Cables/cable looms - too easy to crimp and stretch them, unfortunately;
4. Valves/power transistors - fried, usually due to poor thermal design;
5. Knobs and buttons - damn those ham-fisted users;

So, yes, power supplies do go, mostly without warning.

Thanks to all the replies.....here's a quick update:

1. Monday 15th - called, and was told the person assesing the unit went home sick. The lady (that answered the call) said she would call me on Tuesday to give me an update.

2. Tuesday 16th - With no shock at all I haven't received a call from them. I went down to the place. Well, the guy at reception went to have a look and I was told the unit would be assessed that afternoon. I told him I was told the unit was "being assessed on Friday, and then Monday, but he's telling me it hadn't even started being assessed." I was sooooooo angry! I got him to write down on paper that someone would call me today with an assessment of the unit. Don't know if that'll do any good but well, we'll see if i get a call.

Funny thing is I called Sony themselves last Wednesday last week with a bit of a complaint in the time to assess a unit. They said they would follow up and call me back. Yeah right....I called them again yesterday. Guy told me he spoke with someone from Customer Relations (not sure if Sony or European Electronics) and they would call me yesterday afternoon.......hey, guess wot....i'm still waiting.

Wait till you get it back then find out it's not even yours....had this problem once with a DVD player. I make sure now I mark the appliance and tell the person repairing it that I have marked it, this way they wont give me someone else's cr*p

I had a Samsung 42" SD Plasma, it went nuts kept turning itself on and off every few seconds, guy took it for repair, kept calling up till 4 weeks later (told no parts available!), went back to my local Retravision store and told them ofmy plight, they gave me a credit for my full buy price on the Sammy of 3 months before, and I bought a new Panny HD 500A off them. Better still they even went to the repair shop and collected the Sammy. Now that is service.

just an update to this;

my mate had his VCAT thing today, which was regarding a similar repair fiasco, although for a CRT.. anyway, after lots of useless arguing by Sony (whom in the end had no case, as the CRT was fautly, and they had not repaired it or offered anything else until the hearing), the end result was Sony having to replace the 32" CRT with a 40" Bravia within 3 weeks

its unfortunate that some simple customer service on the behalf of Sony could have resolved this (and also the repair of the plasma which this thread is about). Extremely poor on behalf of Sony.

I think you have been patient enough, so if you dont get anywhere regarding your plasma in the next couple of days, i'd stop banging your head against a brick wall and recommend commencing action via your local consumer affairs office (if you have not done so already) - at the very least, you can commence the action, and tell Sony/the repair people that you have done so - sometimes it gets things resolved very quickly all of a sudden!!

cheers

I had the scan board on my NEC fail after 3 years and 2 months. Initial quote was $622 for board, $230 for labour and $63 for service call giving an all up total of $915. After some good ole fashion foot stamping I got the entire job for the price of the scan board. Though I still maintain that nothing valued at $622 in a plasma should fail after 3 years, I was happy to pay the reduced price. Thank you Preshant. Still took nearly 4 weeks to fix it. Apparently there were no scan boards in the country to suit so one had yo be freighted from Japan. I have heard some horror stories regarding Sony going back 15yrs when I had boggy Sony HT receiver.

It seems almost to be planned obsolescence by manufacturers to limit the product's life through poor design in critical circuits and by minimizing component availability to repairers.

Extended warranty may be one's only recourse for repair of one's expensive display........fix it or replace it.


C.M

Worst one I had (not Plasma BTW) was with a 6 month old Sony 68cm CRT that decided it wouldn't start (would start then immediately shutdown).

Repair time from time of drop off until repair was 3 and half years. When I finally got it back, they had lost the remote, cracked the case and f***ed up the colour alignment and linearity.....

Needless to say getting a replacement or refund was a real joy....

"But Sir, your set is three and half years old"
"Yes it is now, but it was only six months old when I gave it to you"

In the end another six months of persistance paid off.

That's incredible.

C.M

Excellent result, and congratulations to your mate. If more people took this kind of action, useless shunts like Sony would get the message and not bugger their customers about so frequently. (I take it it was Sony Australia themselves, not some repair agent or retailer.)

A 40" Bravia is a very nice outcome indeed. Is that what your mate asked for or is that what the arbitrator deemed necessary in the particular circumstances?

Thanks for the info and follow up. Hope VCAT publish the case on their website.

Wow - certainly a horror story!!!


Well, new update....continued to call throughout the week. On Wednesday I asked for Service Manager - he was in a meeting, I asked for the General Manager - he wasn't there, I asked to speak to a Manager and was put through to the Admin Manager.

I finally spoke with the Service Manager on Friday. He has advised that the Extended Warranty group have approved the repairs and I will be receiving my TV back on Tuesday afternoon.

There's no reason for me to doubt this statement so here's hoping.